For years, most Venezuelans in exile in Spain – leading opposition figures and citizens alike – have hoped for a day when ousted president Nicolás Maduro will no longer be in power.
It has been a constant hope for Xiomara Sierra since the Venezuelan elections of July 2024, when she became the target of threats while organizing the campaign of an opposition political party. Sierra says he is accused of terrorism on national television by the country’s justice minister.
“He punched the table and threatened me with Operation Tun Tun,” he said, directing the arrest of dozens of protesters and opponents by Venezuelan security forces. “I didn’t say goodbye to my family, no one knows that I’m leaving.”
Sierra, who now speaks for Spain’s opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado, says she is worried about Venezuela’s vice president, who has been sworn in as interim leader. “Delcy Rodríguez is an instrument of repression of the Venezuelan state,” Sierra said. “We can’t trust him.”
Faced with the brutal repression of the Maduro regime, Venezuelans have fled to Spain in recent years. Speaking the same language, sharing cultural similarities and benefiting from open immigration policies, about 400,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, according to the country’s statistics office.
“It’s a mixed feeling. This is not what we expected,” said Saray Chirinos, who runs a Venezuelan bakery in Madrid’s Maravillas market. “Venezuelan people expected that Maduro would be removed from office and that the democratic revolution would begin with María Corina Machado. Now we have to wait and keep praying to God.”
Sierra is one of the few opposition members exiled in Spain to speak publicly since the US operation that arrested Maduro and his wife in Jan. 3. Many prefer not to be seen as they see if they will be able to return to public life in Venezuela.
Human rights groups say Venezuela holds 800 to 900 political prisoners, most of whom were swept out under Maduro’s leadership. Most of them are believed to be held at El Helicoide, a facility in Caracas that has been documented for years as a place of abuse and torture of prisoners.
On Friday, Venezuela announced the release of some political prisoners. US President Donald Trump responded via social media saying he has stopped the second wave of military strikes in the country.
But Sierra said the exemption doesn’t go far enough. “For real change, all political prisoners must be released, and all torture centers must be closed. Then the popular vote of the Venezuelan people in 2024 must be respected.”
The US capture of Nicolás Maduro has opened new hope for the hundreds of political dissidents who have been languishing in Venezuela’s notorious prisons. Nationally, CBC’s Evan Dyer talks to Venezuelans now living in Canada who say they want to see the Trump administration do more to free their families and friends.
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 76, a former politician who represented the opposition in the 2024 presidential election and received political asylum in Spain, called on Friday for recognition of his “obvious” election victory.
“The reconstruction of democracy in Venezuela depends on the transparent recognition of the results of the elections of July 28, 2024,” he told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The former mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, who is in exile in Madrid, called for “strategic patience” going forward. Leopoldo López, another dissident who was exiled to Madrid after being sentenced in 2015 to 14 years in prison for calling for post-election protests in 2014, has not publicly responded.
An uncertain future
Fear is palpable among Venezuelan asylum seekers waiting for their applications to be processed in Spain. Another 37-year-old applicant from the Spanish city of León asked not to be identified to avoid jeopardizing his application. “I’m very afraid, we don’t know what will happen to our case here,” he said.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2024, several European countries stopped asylum applications from Syrians. “If tomorrow Europe or Spain decides that Venezuela is safe and rejects our requests and tells us to go back, what will we do? There is no hope left in my country.”
Meanwhile, the Spanish prime minister has promised that Spain will help the Venezuelan people decide their future, while repeatedly criticizing the actions of the US.
Since Trump’s return to power and his tightening of immigration policies, Spain has recorded an increase in the number of people arriving in Latin America, especially from Venezuela. The absence of a tourist visa makes entering Spain easier, but that doesn’t mean everything is easy.
“Like many Venezuelans, I had nothing when I arrived here in Spain, I didn’t even have documents,” said Chirinos, who now owns his own business. This journey was long and difficult, so he has not decided whether he will ever return to his country one day.
“I haven’t been in my country for a long time. I have two sons, and my youngest, eight years old, was born when we left Venezuela. He has never seen his country,” said Chirinos.
‘We hope to come back and rebuild’
Venezuelans in Spain are wondering if the situation has improved enough for them to return home. Some say they haven’t seen their relatives or their country for years.
“Venezuela is still not a free country, but it is entering a democratic reform process that we hope will work well,” said Eriana Zuleta, a 28-year-old Venezuelan exiled in Madrid who only knows Chávez and Maduro as her country’s leaders. “It’s true that we haven’t packed our bags yet; we can’t just leave all night.”
His father, Erick Zuleta, president of the national union of transport workers in Venezuela and a former opposition deputy, arrived about 10 years ago in Spain. “On July 26, 2017, when we voted for a transportation strike to protest the shortage, I was warned that the political police would arrest me,” said Erick, who was once a neighbor of Delcy Rodríguez.
What followed was a three-day crossing that ended at the Simón Bolívar Bridge, which separates Colombia from Venezuela. “I crossed the nine states of Venezuela, changing cars several times. I was scared; it was like a science fiction movie.”
Erick’s daughter followed him shortly afterwards to Spain due to stress. Eriana said her family has been under surveillance.
Erick wants to think about the future of his country. “I already have a plan to restore the transportation system in Venezuela,” said the representative of the union, clarifying that María Corina Machado will have to start managing the country.
“We hope that we will come back and rebuild, but everything will depend on how things happen,” he said.
Sierra also hopes that one day she will be able to reunite with her loved ones. “What happened on January 3 gives me hope that one day I will be able to return home even though the conditions are not good.
